S.F. citywide Wi-Fi plan fizzles as provider backs off — Mayor Gavin Newsom's high-profile effort to blanket San Francisco with a free wireless Internet network died Wednesday when provider EarthLink backed out of a proposed contract with the city. — The contract, which was three years in the making …

Portable Media: First Zune 2 and Zune Flash Shots — Here are the first shots of the Zune 2 and Zune Flash. The images reveal an 80GB version and a 4 and 8GB flash model. — Not sure what's going on with that interesting controller, but it looks like a real button …

Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright! — "Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "unbelievable gall or audacity". An example of it would be the story of the kid who murders both of his parents …

Google Gadgets that Talk to Each Other — You could say that widgets (or gadgets, as Google likes to call them) are small applications that bring together a lot of information relevant to you. Now what if these gadgets would communicate with each other by sending small messages?

Microsoft antitrust deal earns mixed grades — Editor's note: This blog was updated at 12:40 p.m. PDT with additional information from the Department of Justice filing and a link to Microsoft's report. — With most of Microsoft's antitrust settlement with the government poised to expire this November …

And Now For Helio Job Cuts — Helio, the mega-mobile virtual network operator backed by Korean telecom giant SK Telecom (SKM) and EarthLink (ELNK), is rumored to be contemplating job cuts. Our sources indicate that it could happen sometime this week, and there have been some hush-hush meetings today …

Bloggers battered by viral storm — Google's Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs. — The fake entries contain weblinks that lead to booby-trapped downloads that could infect a Windows PC. — Infected computers are being hijacked …

Joost Gets an API, Becomes Widget Platform — Joost just released version 0.12.0 of its P2P TV client this week. The new releases offers end users a bunch of bug fixes, but developers get a special treat: Joost has opened up its API and now makes it possible to develop third-party widgets that can be installed within the client.

Google, Yahoo to direct your Mercedes — Mercedes-Benz USA has an answer to complaints that car navigation directions don't measure up to those from sites like Yahoo, Google and Ask. — The automaker has partnered with Google and Yahoo to allow users to send customized Google Maps …

Breaking: Bank of India seriously compromised — We have discovered that the Bank of India's site, bankofindia(dot)com is compromised and is serving malware. DO NOT VISIT THIS SITE. — The following code can be clearly seen on the site: — (Obviously, do not visit these sites that are in the HTML source).

Can data be stored on single atoms? — Researchers at IBM will have two papers published in the journal Science this week detailing how it may be possible to use individual atoms, or groups of atoms, to store data or act as a transistor. — The work revolves around harnessing magnetic anisotropy, a property of atoms.